


love like a morning

by novembersmith



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Exhibitionism, Multi, Porn with Feelings, Threesome, Voyeurism, Yuleporn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 13:43:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13055157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novembersmith/pseuds/novembersmith
Summary: They had not yet all shared a bed in the morning, before now. Their love-making had always been by candlelight or, moonlight, or no light at all, with the responsibilities of their days beginning soon after waking and long before the sun rose.





	love like a morning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pageleaf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pageleaf/gifts).



> All the love and thanks for the reassurances of my pre-readers, plalligator and salvamisandwich.

“Do you think this is what it normally feels like to fall in love? For other people. Mere mortals, you understand.”

She had thought Eugenides asleep, but when Irene stilled her fingers in Costis’s hair and turned her head to look at her husband, he was propped up on his good arm, watching them with a look half teasing, half intent.

“I could not begin to guess,” she replied lowly, bemused, and closed her eyes when he leaned in, nuzzling aside one of her dark curls to press a kiss to the bare shoulder beneath.

It did feel differently, of course, this new love. Nothing of the gods involved, or destiny. Eugenides was something she had chosen, someone she would choose, over and over again, but falling in love with him had been agony, and sometimes she felt it even still – the lingering ache of their descent. Most of their relationship felt drenched in merciless light as heavy as marble, weighted in the scrutiny of divinity and history, with the softness that made the love _theirs_ tucked out of sight, in shadowed moments tender and private as folds in velvet.

Somehow, they had both tumbled to that same, sweet place with Costis, but the fall had been less brutal, the terror more giddying than profound. Maybe that was how men and women loved, outside palace walls. Or maybe it was more that Costis had looked at them from his own soft shadows, and decided they were worth the exposure to the incandescence of their lives.

There was so little they had that was their own. But there was this.

Next to them, Costis was burnished in the morning sun that streamed in from the garden. He lay where he had collapsed last evening, arm flung out above his head, ragged breaths given way by now to a steadier sleep. There was a distinct, neat set of red teethmarks on his shoulder that Irene felt hot to see despite the cool breeze, and she shifted her thighs thoughtfully.

They had not yet all shared a bed in the morning, before now. Their love-making had always been by candlelight or, moonlight, or no light at all, with the responsibilities of their days beginning soon after waking and long before the sun rose. 

But this was the day after the feast, and no one was at war, and there was time and space for it. Irene felt decadent as she turned for a kiss. Gloriously naked, with the sheets slid away at the foot of the bed, and Gen’s hand cupping her breast, clever fingers on her nipple. The kiss turned deeper, wild in a way that although familiar never failed to set her aflame.

“He is handsome in the morning, isn’t he, though? Our soldier,” Gen murmured against her mouth, and they both turned to look at Costis. He had shifted slightly in his sleep, turning to show the curve of his spine, the way his waist narrowed from the breadth of his shoulders. “Those muscles. He could pick me up, have me against a wall, or you – ah, you like that idea, do you.”

His leg found its way between her thighs, and she rocked up against it, flushed and wet. Eugenides stared down at her and trembled, and she felt lit up, softly, in the same sunlight that touched Costis’s skin. He brushed aside a damp curl from her cheek with his wrist, and seemed frozen for a moment there, only looking at her.

“Beautiful,” Costis said hoarsely into the silence of it, and when Irene’s eyes found him again, he was watching them and looking thunderstruck. “Gods, you are both – so beautiful.”

“Costis,” Eugenides murmured, shivering at his gaze, and Irene felt so helplessly, so thoroughly, for the two of them staring at each other that for a moment she thought she might die of it. Eugenides reached out to touch Costis’s cheek, and she could feel her husband’s cock twitch against her leg when Costis turned to press a kiss against his palm, mouthing at the calluses there. Her thighs fell open as her back arched into the pulse of want that moved through her at the look on their faces, and Eugenides made a strangled sound.

“How, I – how would you like it, what do you want?” he asked Costis, his hand slipping to the back of Costis’s neck and tugging. “It was you who granted wishes last night, now it is your turn to make one of your own.”

Irene delicately dragged a nail over Eugenides’ nipple, to make him look at her, and got a small squeak, then a smirk. “Irene agrees,” he said belatedly, voice flavored with laughter, but Costis didn’t budge beneath his hand as Eugenides tugged on him. Heavier, and stubborn enough to stay put if he wanted, their soldier.

Irene tilted her head consideringly. “What do you want, Costis?”

“Let me only watch, a moment,” he begged, voice hot and ragged, hair backlit by sunshine into a halo of gold. “Let me see you like this.”

Eugenides breathed in sharply, as Irene felt her face got hot and her nipples tight, and then they both startled when Costis laughed. He had pillowed his head on his arms and was watching them with a crooked grin.

“Besides,” he said, warm and smiling, brown eyes sparkling like cut topaz. He looked very pleased with himself. “I know how you like to show off.”

“Ah, he does know you well,” Eugenides said, licking his lips and staring back down at her again. “Shall we, darling?”

“Was he not talking of you?” she murmured, and stretched beneath him, arching her neck. Her legs went taut, toes pointed as he grazed her pulse with gentle teeth, and under the quiet of their heavy breathing, she heard Costis gasp. The sound made her ache, a little, and she arched her back, rolled her hips, to hear it again.

“Well, not _just_ of me,” Eugenides murmured, and laughed when, after a moment of thought, she nodded to concede the point. She did like to be watched, by both of her men. “Our beautiful queen. Look, Costis, are you looking?”

“Yes,” Costis hissed, and Eugenides let his fingers slip between her legs, and she heard Costis moan thickly when she cried out herself. A thief’s hand, so clever, and she was already so wet for them his fingers could glide.

“Please,” she said, knowing her limbs were limned in morning. She almost could feel Costis’s gaze on her skin, shivery and worshipping. “Gen, please,” and she shuddered around his fingers as he slid them in, grinding against her with his palm at the same time. “Oh! Oh…” Her head fell back and she stared at the ceiling, unable to stop the cries spilling from her lips, going on and on until she was only panting, soft and hoarse.

“That was quick, my love,” Eugenides said thickly, and hazily she saw him staring down at her, wide-eyed, as he gently pulled back his fingers from her to stroke her lightly atop her folds.

“Oh, gods, oh—” Costis was praying, strangled, and when Irene turned her head to look at him, she saw he’d turned on his side. He had a hand on himself, not moving as she’d expected, but clutching at the base as though for control. “Irene,” he said, face flushed, and she pushed up against Eugenides’s palm again without thinking, her body moving for her.

“Irene, may I—” Eugenides said, urgently, and she nodded quickly, hair sticking to her cheeks. He got his arm against one of her thighs, wrist stark against the pale skin, and pushed it up to bare her until it was nearly at her shoulder. He stared down at her for a long moment until she was arching her back and shivering impatiently.

“Beautiful,” Costis said. “Please, Gen – please just—she’s so beautiful.”

“I know,” Eugenides said raggedly, and then, with a deep breath, slid inside her. Her hands found his curls and she pulled him down to her mouth, taking desperate kisses from him that were more tongue than lips. So soon after his fingers had brought her to a peak, it felt intense as a storm at sea, waves rolling and crashing over her until she felt she might drown of it, gladly.

“Is, is Costis,” she managed, and Eugenides didn’t pause the roll of his hips, only turned his head to press a damp kiss against her knee, groaning when she shuddered.

“He’s watching, Irene,” he said shakily into her skin, and reached out his hand, still wet with her. “He looks – like, like he may be dying. Ah – gods, Costis, please – I need-- _fuck_ ,” he said as Costis closed his mouth around his fingers, moaning around them. As he did, Irene felt Eugenides push hard against her, and cry out as he went deep and still, hitting her somewhere that throbbed and shivered like a strike to a bell. She wrapped her arms around her panting, shaking husband, pulling him to her breast and holding him there, legs still about his waist.

“Costis,” Eugenides mumbled against her breast, and slowly rolled off of her. “Gods, let me—oh, hell. I wanted to help with that, darling.”

“Sorry,” Costis breathed shakily. “I couldn’t – I couldn’t not.”

“But if I was very persuasive, could you again?” Eugenides asked interestedly into a kiss, and started laughing when Costis groaned, half resignation and half delight.

Irene opened her eyes. The room was full of light, now – the morning properly begun, but the sun still soft and not yet scorching. Still half draped over her, her husband and her soldier were kissing in its glow, rays breaking around them.

“Beautiful,” she murmured, and settled back to watch. She did not know how most men and women fell in love, and soon, they would leave this quiet space and move back into the realm of gods and empires, and decisions that weighed the lives of thousands. But for now, just for a moment, the light was theirs.


End file.
